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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22697230">once bitten twice shy</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarzgaPerez/pseuds/MarzgaPerez'>MarzgaPerez</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Mickey and Monkey [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shameless (US)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bite marks, Family Feels, M/M, Other, Our boys growing, Preschool Woes, parenting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 11:00:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,750</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22697230</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarzgaPerez/pseuds/MarzgaPerez</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Franny comes home from preschool with a bite mark, and Mickey and Ian have to figure out how to address it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich, Mickey Milkovich &amp; Franny Gallagher</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Mickey and Monkey [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624345</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>257</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>once bitten twice shy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Mickey was seeing red—dark angry streaks of red—as he paced the length of the kitchen. “What kind of bullshit is this?!” </p><p>Ian appeared to be working up the strength to settle his fired-up husband, having seen the incident report from Franny’s preschool teacher. It mentioned a bite mark on her arm—the second one in a week’s time.</p><p>“Gonna give that little shit a piece of my mind!” Mickey spat. </p><p>“Calm the fuck down,” Ian said pointedly. “Franny might hear you raging.”</p><p>“Liam took her for a walk,” muttered Mickey. “Just wait ‘til I get my hands on that kid. No one fucks with—”</p><p>“Stop!” Ian was standing in front of him, long fingers pressed into his chest. “Just stop! You’re really going to rough up some four year old?”</p><p>“The teacher wouldn’t tell me his name, but Franny did. <em> Connor</em>. The fuck kind of name is that?”</p><p>Ian shook his head, and pointed to the patch of skin just below his elbow on his right arm. “Really, Mick? I recall a certain grown-ass man biting me not too long ago.”</p><p>“<em>That</em> was different, Gallagher!” Mickey was in no mood to be reminded of his past transgressions. Why wasn’t Ian more outraged that some snot-nosed kid had sunk his fangs into Monkey? “Anyway, she’s gonna point him out to me tomorrow at drop-off, and I’ll take it from there.”</p><p>“Like hell you will!” Ian’s jaw was clenched, and Mickey could see the vein in his neck throbbing, which meant the redhead was pissed the hell off. “We were lucky to get her in that school. You will not fuck this up for Franny! Do you hear me?! Kids will be kids. You can’t go flying off the handle over every little thing that happens!”</p><p>Ian was putting his foot down, but Mickey wasn’t done with the conversation. In fact, he was about to call Ian out for being a pussy when Liam and Franny came inside from the back porch. Liam took one look at the feuding spouses and ushered Franny upstairs to wash up before dinner. Ian threw his hands in the air in frustration and returned to his place in front of the stove to stir the spaghetti sauce.</p><p>Mickey relented. <em> Slightly.</em> “Ian...come on, man. If you don’t want me confronting the kid, I’m gonna at least have the teacher do it.”</p><p>“Fucking fantastic! Can we talk about this later?”</p><p>Mickey sighed. “Whatever…” <em> Gallagher could go climb a fucking tree.</em></p><p>Wanting to have another look at Franny’s arm, Mickey headed upstairs. That damn Connor kid had actually managed to draw blood this time. Mickey found Franny in her room, playing with her dolls. Liam had his nose in a book and was stretched out on the bed that Mickey and Ian were occupying in Debbie’s absence.</p><p>“Dinner’s almost ready. Can you go set the table, Liam?”</p><p>“Sure,” he replied, placing a bookmark between the pages where he’d left off. “You guys okay?”</p><p>“Who? Me and Gallagher? Shit yeah!”</p><p>Liam didn’t look entirely convinced but headed out of the room. Mickey sat down on the floor next to Franny. “Lemme see your arm, Monkey. Does it still hurt?”</p><p>“No.” She held out her arm for him but continued playing, and Mickey patted her on the head. “You can’t let anyone put their hands on you.”</p><p>“Or their tooths,” she added and giggled, apparently over the whole thing. Mickey wasn’t. </p><p>“Why does that kid keep biting you anyway?”</p><p>Franny shrugged. “He wants the toys.”</p><p>“Ah. And when you don’t give them to him, he bites you?”</p><p>“Yeah.” Franny looked up at him sweetly and apparently uninterested in talking about her classmate anymore. “What’s for dinner?” </p><p>“Spaghetti.” Mickey figured since she’d moved on from it, maybe he should. But he told himself if that little shit Connor ever pullled the same crap again, there would be a fucking reckoning. “Want a ride downstairs?”</p><p>“Yes!” Franny nodded enthusiastically and hopped on his back.</p><p>^^^^^^^^^^</p><p>Dinner was uneventful, and for the most part, everyone focused on their food. With Ian acting like a sullen teenager, Mickey was forced to carry the conversation, chatting with Carl about work and asking Liam about the book he was reading. At some point, Carl realized that Franny had a band-aid on her arm and wanted to know what it was for. When Liam kicked him under the table, Carl actually took the hint and didn’t ask for further details after Franny explained a boy in her class was responsible. </p><p>Following dinner, Ian and Liam cleaned up the kitchen while Carl went upstairs to do Carl things, and Mickey got Franny ready for bed. She came downstairs to ask Liam to read her a bedtime story and to tell Ian good-night.</p><p>“Night, Uncle Ian.”</p><p>“Night, Franny. See you in the morning. Love you.” </p><p>Mickey waited until Franny was tucked in and sound asleep before going back downstairs to ask Ian if whatever had crawled up his ass earlier was gone yet. He found his husband in the living room, resting on the couch and nursing a beer. There was a second beer on the coffee table, drops of condensation rolling down the sides of the bottle. It appeared to be a peace offering.</p><p>“Wanna tell me what’s on your mind, Gallagher?” the brunet asked, plopping down next to Ian, thinking maybe it’d be nice if they watched a movie together instead of this stupid-ass bickering. </p><p>“I don’t know, Mick,” Ian sighed and took a sip of his beer. “You just sounded nuts earlier. Kinda reminded me of back in the day when you were defending Mandy’s honor. You know, from the likes of me?”</p><p>“And that’s a bad thing?” Mickey scratched at the back of his neck, confused as to what the big fucking deal was. “I want to protect Franny. Fuckin’ sue me.”</p><p>“I just...well, with this daycare shit, I started to think about our...parenting skills. You know, what kind of parents we’re going to be. I don’t think we should solve everything with violence. I don’t want our kids doing that kinda shit. Not like we were raised.”</p><p>“Jesus, Ian. I wasn’t really gonna wail on the biter. I was just having a moment.” Mickey leaned over to meet shiny green eyes watching him intently. He could tell from Ian’s expression that this had been on his mind for awhile—this new worry—whatever it was. “You think I’m unfit or something?”</p><p>“Fuck no, Mickey! You’re doing a great job with Franny. She fucking adores you. And Liam’s seemed less worried about things since we’ve been here full time. Maybe I’m overthinking shit, but I’m worried about how we’d do it for real—me and you—raising our own kids. We won’t agree all the time.”</p><p>“Well, no...we won’t.”</p><p>“And we might act like our parents did. Sometimes,” added Ian. </p><p>“Sure. But not a whole lot. I ain’t beating our kids, and you won’t be running out the door every five minutes.” Mickey put his beer down and moved so that his shoulder was pressing into Ian’s, his fingers stroking his husband’s pale, freckled cheek in a soothing motion. </p><p>“You’re taking care of your family, Ian. <em> You </em> are. You’re taking care of us. And I’m really fuckin’ proud of you.”</p><p>Ian’s expression relaxed into a smile, and he rested his fingers on top of Mickey’s hand. “We’re definitely in this together.” He pressed his lips against Mickey’s, and it was moments like these when Mickey realized that any time they needed to, they could course-correct, just by talking things out. Thank fuck they’d come this far.</p><p>“But I’m taking Franny to school tomorrow,” Ian insisted. “And you’re letting this shit go.”</p><p>“Fine. For now. But if junior tries to go vampire on Franny again, I’m talking to that fuckin’ teacher.”</p><p>“Okay. Me too. We can do it together. I don’t want Debbie coming home to a mangled-ass kid.”</p><p>“Exactly. Now go make us some popcorn, bitch, and let’s watch a movie. Forget about this shit for a couple of hours.”</p><p>Ian laughed, the tension in his jaw completely gone. “Sounds good, asshole. I love you.”</p><p>“Love you, too.”</p><p>^^^^^^^^^^</p><p>The following day, Mickey’s shift at work was fairly uneventful. His reputation preceded him, and shoplifting had been down at Old Army for several weeks. Ian texted him that morning to say that drop-off was fine and that Franny had pointed out the Connor kid before running over to him and playing blocks. </p><p><em> See? </em> Ian wrote, <em> nothing to worry about. Just kid stuff. It’s not as dog eat dog like when we grew up.  </em></p><p><em> Sure, Gallagher</em>, he responded. <em> Don’t worry, my tits are chilled.</em></p><p>On his lunch break, Mickey took advantage of his 15% discount and bought a couple of T-shirts for Liam and some outfits for Franny, one of which featured a group of monkeys having a tea party. He nearly shit himself when he saw that one.</p><p>Mickey was pleasantly surprised when Ian texted him that afternoon, asking him to pick up Franny since he was going to be running late. <em> I guess he trusts me after all. </em></p><p>After punching out, Mickey took the L over to Franny’s school, realizing he was a few minutes early since the kids were still in afternoon recess. <em> Maybe I can figure out which one is Connor, </em> thought Mickey, <em> just for future reference. </em>He approached the playground area and quickly spotted Franny, bundled up in her coat and scarf and chasing after a blonde boy who held a bright red ball.</p><p>The teacher, Mrs. Walker, middle-aged and looking as tired as fuck, was gabbing with her classroom assistant and not paying much attention to the kids. Mickey was about to go over and speak to her when he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, Franny shoving the boy down and taking the ball from his hands. The boy picked himself up and went to take the ball back from Franny when she yanked on his hair, holding a firm grip until the boy clamped down on her arm.</p><p>Mickey froze in his tracks, unsure if he could trust his own eyes over what he’d just seen, when Franny let out a shriek that caught Mrs. Walker’s attention.</p><p>“He’s biiiiiiiiting me!” she wailed.</p><p>Before the teacher could reach Franny, Mickey was en route, and he arrived just as the biter, who he presumed was Connor, had released Franny’s arm.</p><p>Mrs. Walker appeared, breathless and looking sternly at the young boy. “Oh goodness! Not again, Connor! Are you alright, Franny? I’m terribly sorry, Mr. Gallagher, is it?”</p><p>“Just Mickey. Mr. Gallagher is my husband. He goes by Ian.”</p><p>“Ahh, okay. That’s right. Does Franny need a band-aid? I can take her inside and clean her up. Guess I’ll be writing another incident report.” She turned to the blonde-haired boy, who was patting the spot on his head where Franny had pulled his hair. “And I’ll have to call your parents.”</p><p>Franny’s tear-stained face was buried against Mickey’s thigh, and though he patted her back reassuringly, he was also aware that she was far from innocent in all of this.</p><p>“Mrs. Walker,” said Mickey, “I’m sure you have to follow certain rules, but I saw what happened. Franny provoked the little dude. Mind if I talk to her?”</p><p>“Of course, go ahead,” she said warmly.</p><p>Mickey took a deep breath and dug down deep to come up with the right thing to say. He got down on one knee and lifted Franny’s chin to meet his gaze, surprisingly unmoved by her weepy eyes. While he knew the tears were real, he couldn’t ignore her behavior. “Monkey, you have to ask before you take a toy. And pulling hair isn’t nice. Can you apologize to Connor?”</p><p>
  <em> Mickey barely recognized the sound of his own voice. He sounded like a...dad. Fuck, Ian would be so proud of him for this shit. </em>
</p><p>“I’m...s-sorry…” croaked Franny, wrapping her little arms around Mickey’s neck. </p><p>Mrs. Walker urged Connor to apologize as well. He did, though Mickey was very tempted to tell the kid to keep his chompers off of Franny. Instead, he stood up without saying another word, holding Franny’s hand to walk her inside. The teacher shooed Connor back over to the play area. </p><p>“They’re usually inseparable,” noted Mrs. Walker as the three of them entered the classroom. “Best friends even. I’m not sure what this new development is about, but I’ll be keeping an extra set of eyes on them.”</p><p>Mickey held back a comment about how maybe she needed to step up her game, since this was the third time, but he figured it wasn’t the easiest job in the world, being a preschool teacher.</p><p>“We’ll talk to her this evening. Sometimes it’s good to have a friend that you can figure <em> shi</em>—stuff out with, you know?”</p><p>“Yes, that’s true, Mr. Gall...uh, Mickey.”</p><p>After they’d inspected her arm, which had been protected by her coat, Mickey signed Franny out, and they walked to the L, riding silently most of the way until Mickey poked Franny’s side. She giggled and nestled her head against his arm. </p><p>“So why’d you push your buddy Connor?”</p><p>“He said my hair was just like that red ball. I didn’t like that.”</p><p>Mickey kissed the top of her head. “Your hair is <em> my </em> favorite color hair.”</p><p>She lifted her eyes towards him and smiled shyly, fluttering her eyelashes. </p><p>“Eh, maybe Connor was trying to be funny. Next time, use your words. Like you just did with me. Tell him ‘I don’t like that,’ and walk away.”</p><p>
  <em> God, Mickey felt like a total dad. Where was this shit coming from? It sure sounded like the right thing to say.</em>
</p><p>“Okay,” she agreed, “But are you gonna tell Uncle Ian about today?”</p><p>“How about if I tell him later on? After you go to bed?” Mickey figured she was pretty embarrassed about the whole situation. </p><p>“Yeah. He has my hair color too. I don’t want him to be sad.”</p><p>“That’s nice of you to think of him, Monkey. He’ll be okay. And so will you. Just remember what we talked about.”</p><p>Before they arrived at their stop, Mickey showed Franny the outfits he’d bought for her, and she beamed, asking if she could wear the tea party outfit the next day. He nodded, unable to tell her ‘no,’ knowing it wasn’t easy being a kid, especially when your mom was locked up.</p><p>^^^^^^^^^^ </p><p>Mickey waited until later that evening to fill Ian in on what had happened. They were together in bed in the spare room, craving some alone time, though they’d relocate to Franny’s room later—in case she woke up during the night. </p><p>Ian took a drag from the cigarette they were sharing, then passed it to Mickey, who was resting his head against his husband’s bare chest. </p><p>“You know those parenting skills you mentioned yesterday?” Mickey said. “We’re gonna need ‘em. Franny’s been getting physical with the biter.”</p><p>“What?” Ian raised himself up, resting his weight on his elbows as Mickey rolled onto his side. “You two said everything was fine today. Did you talk with her teacher?”</p><p>“No, saw it myself.”</p><p>“Aww, fuck. I thought Franny was the golden child. So much for that.”</p><p>Mickey laughed. “It’s fine. She’s fine. The kid was making fun of her hair. Franny pushed him and pulled his hair. He bit her. I told her to use her words next time.”</p><p>“Bullshit. <em> You </em> did not say that.” Ian shoved at Mickey’s arm in disbelief.</p><p>“Fuck off, Gallagher. Just because I don’t do it, doesn’t mean I can’t tell Monkey to do it,” Mickey huffed and stamped out the cigarette in the ashtray on the nightstand before he felt his husband’s strong arms pulling him closer, followed by soft lips nuzzling his neck.</p><p>“Hey, Mick,” Ian said gently. “Sounds like you handled it really well. You’re owning this parenting shit. Guess it wouldn’t hurt for us to set a good example—use our words instead of our fists.”</p><p>“Alright. Here’s some <em> words </em> for your moral, upstanding ass. How about you—”</p><p>Mickey found himself silenced by Ian’s lips and distracted by fingers roaming down the front of his body. He decided that maybe it was better to save his words for later and let Ian do the talking for now. That damn ginger always did have a way with words.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you to a most lovely beta, bccalling!</p><p>I am so excited that our boys get to be together and wish them all the happiness, whether they end up helping to raise the Gallaghers or strays or kids they make together. Or they can just enjoy each other for awhile since they haven’t had many opportunities to do that. </p><p>Thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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